Ala Moana has a new sushi bar. Guess where?

Have you been to Shirokiya lately? How many times have I been asking that? First they revamp the entire second floor into a Japanese food mecca and beer garden, then they convert half the first floor into a sweets plaza, then they bring in ramen shops from all over Japan for two-week pop-ups … and there’s more?

The Japanese department store at Ala Moana Center, locally owned now and the only one left in the statewide chain, may be 350 years old, but it’s moving pretty fast. Don’t come here if you’re easily overwhelmed or can’t handle change. The first floor has changed focus again. And don’t overlook the corner on the second floor between the crepes and the takoyaki: That’s only one month old.

That corner is the reason why the last time I went looking for ramen, I never got it. Just watch.

Maguro Zanmai
Ala Moana Center, Shirokiya 2F

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About Mari Taketa

Mari Taketa went through an entire career life cycle — journalism school, AP reporter, business magazine editor — before her rebirth as a food writer. She considers her blog, Deliriyum, part of her state of nirvana.

i love to go to Shirokiya, esp. when they have special flown-in- from-Japan-this-am samples of all kinds of fish roe and wet nori snax. i think i ate about 30bucks worth of some orange fish eggs that were 89bucks a pound. then the local Japanese UPS guy and i knocked back a half dozen tiny little steel dishes of sea salad in seawater and went "waaaaaaa!'' every time. we agreed it tasted just like the beach smells in Japan.

Nice! I like that they change constantly. I wouldn't normally like that in a regular store, but somehow for a place like Shirokiya, the fresh new concepts make me feel like they're keeping everything...well, fresh. A lot of the concepts can get old and tired rather quickly, IMHO.

EO: Okay, you must have the metabolism of bee. How can you eat all the stuff you cover and weigh barely 98 lbs! I get fat looking at the pix! Maybe that's why I gained so much weight since following this blog?

@Annoddah_Dave if weather or injury prevent me from exercising one way, i exercise another. at home i eat a lot of simply prepared veggies and fish. i don't drink soda. ur question wasn't rhetorical, was it? :)